Friday, November 27, 2015

DAOLOTH"The object was not shapeless, but so complex that the eye could recognize no describable
shape. There were hemispheres and shining metal, coupled by long plastic
rods. The rods were of a flat grey colour, so that he could not make
out which were nearer; they merged into a flat mass from which protruded
individual cylinders. As he looked at it, he had a curious feeling that
eyes gleamed from between these rods; but wherever he glanced at the
construction, he saw only the spaces between them. The strangest part was that he felt this was an image of something living - something from a dimension where such an example of abnormal geometry could live."

Thursday, November 26, 2015

"Once she glimpsed its ribs through a gloomy clump of bushes. Even if it was a greyhound, it looked in need of feeding."

"He turned his head and saw a figure running after him on all fours along the dim road, a thin shape moving faster than the car."

"Was it meant to show a mass of vegetation in the shape of a face? If so, what kind of face? All she could identify was the tongue that bulged thirstily from the jagged mouth, unless the tongue was a swollen root, and the stalks that curled upward from the eyes to form horns above the low forehead."

As she floored the pedal the two figures raced past the car, their muscles flexing like windblown branches, and turned their face to her as they ran. She saw how their grayish manes grew out of ragged eye sockets, from one of which a clenched flower dangled as if it had be gouged."

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

"Then the movements clarified and separated, and he saw that there were three shapes, three insects crawling up the rock. Why should the sight of a few insects make him feel he couldn't breathe? his head was swimming by the time he realized that since the pale, thin shapes were crawling on the wall where it merged with the dark, they must really be larger than he was."

"They were the color of the lizard he'd trodden on, the color of things that lived in the dark. They had long fingers they were using to climb the rock, slowly but relentlessly. Two of them were raising their smooth heads toward him in a way that made him thing they had no eyes."

"The van swung round the curve, and both she and Jeremy cowered back in their seats, gasping as the headlights lit up what was standing in the middle of the road, thrusting forward its white eyeless face that bore a gaping smile, its outstretched arms touching the trees on both side of the road."

"It's long oval body the color of a dead fish, its penis dangling like a withered umbilical cord down one fleshless leg. It only smiled more widely, a smile that seemed totally devoid of emotion on the flat, shiny, featureless face, and let go of the trees, ready to reach for the van with its huge splayed hands."

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

INSECT FROM SHAGGAI"221-Insects
or other entities from space attack and penetrate a man’s head and
cause him to remember alien and exotic things—possible displacement of
personality."H.P. Lovecraft, Commonplace Book

"At
last a shape appeared, flapping above the ground on leathery wings.
The thing which flew whirring toward me was followed by a train of
others, wings slapping the air at incredible speed... I could ... make
out many more details... Those huge lidless eyes which stared in hate at
me, the jointed tendrils which seemed to twist from the head in cosmic
rhythms, the ten legs, covered with black shining tentacles and folded
into the pallid underbody, and the semi-circular ridged wings covered
with triangular scales... I saw the three mouths of the thing move moistly, and then it was upon me."Ramsey Campbell, The Insects from Shaggai

Monday, November 23, 2015

"She could feel how it was moving, she screamed that. She could feel it was a monster."

“’You see, it wasn’t her husband who’d told her originally what would happen to her baby. It was another man, who had power over her and her husband. Those were her words: had power. And he hadn’t just said the baby would be born a monster. He’d said he would make it born that way.”

“’Was it as bad as she feared?’”

“’Yes,’ the doctor said. ‘Yes, it was.‘”

“’This is all I’ll tell you,’ he said, and George felt he hoped it would leave him in the telling.

‘It was nearly three feet long.’”Ramsey Campbell, The Doll Who Ate His Mother

Saturday, November 21, 2015

Hey folks! Quick update. This coming Thanksgiving week I'll be posting yet another full week's worth of Ramsey Campbell monsters including one of the most complex Great Old Ones I've ever drawn! Speaking of Thanksgiving...

Ross Lockhart over at Word Horde is throwing down the generosity gauntlet with the Return of #FeedCthulhu ! Here's the statement direct from Word Horde:

"Thanksgiving may be the time to celebrate our prosperity and
providence, but people still go hungry. And hunger sucks. So once again
I’d like to challenge you to make a difference, by making a donation–no
matter how small–to a food charity. This can be a local food bank,
church, temple, mosque, coven, bin outside your grocery store, or
national (or international) hunger relief organization. The organization
doesn’t matter, so long as they’re feeding people. Once you do that,
post the following on social media:

Friday, November 20, 2015

"And, truly, if I do
say that it was somewhat as that I had seen a monstrous slug-thing,
surely I should use wise and proper words to make known to you this
horrid brute."

"And truly it moved a little with the head, this way and that,
stretching through the dark and the shadows, as you shall see a slug to
move, and with no speed or sound, and nowise seeming heedful of aught.
But yet did I fear that it smelled us, if this might be; and this, as
you shall think, to be a very natural fear."

"Yet had those Slugs that we did see, been black and
shining, for the most, as I have told;"

"And the Monster Slug came onward, and as it did go, it set the stalks of
the eyes in among the boulders, as that it did search;"

"The Slug-Beast set out a big tongue among
the boulders, after that it did peer thereunder; and the tongue did be
very long, and white, and something thin-seeming; and the Monster lapped
inward in a moment a great snake from among the boulders, and the tongue
did hold upon the snake, as that there did be surely teeth or roughness
upon the tongue;"William Hope Hodgson, The Night Land

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

"And surely this thing did prove to be; for there came very quick, a great and ugly thing, that had an ugly way of putting down the feet, and did have seven feet to each side, which was very strange; and the back was as that it were horny, and the belly of the thing did seem to brush heavy upon the earth, and it grunted, as it went, and shook the earth with the weight of it; so that a monstrous noise came from it, upon so hasty a journey."

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

HUMPED MAN"And I crept to the edge and looked downward, and lo! I did see that there came up the rock two Humped Men;"

"And I saw how that the Humped Men did seem to be humpt by reason of their being so monstrous thick and mighty of the neck and the shoulder, as that they had been human bulls. And I saw that they were very strong, and by the speed of their climbing, I knew they were swift;"

"And in that moment that I slew him, I did note curiously how that he had large teeth upon each side of the mouth;"

"And the blow came something short; but yet harmed the Humped Man with a gash upon the belly, very sore and horrid among the great brown hairs of the man. And immediately he sprang after me me; but I smote full at the face; so that he leaped back from the strange roar and blaze of the Diskos, and yet was harmed; for he gat not right free of the blow; but did be cut very sore on the mighty and haired arm."William Hope Hodgson, The Night Land

Monday, November 16, 2015

TERRIBLE YELLOW-THING"Mine Own did struggle terribly with a yellow thing which I perceived to be a man with four arms; and the Man had two arms about the Maid, and with two did make to choke her unto death;"

And surely it was a mighty and brutish thing, and so broad and bulkt as an ox, and the lower arms were huge and greatly haired, and the fingers of the hands did have the nails grown into horrid talons, as that they should grip very bitter."

"I gat the Man by the great throat, and the throat did be haired, and so great as the neck of a bull."

"And surely the mouth of the Man was small and shaped so that I knew that it did never eat of aught that it did slay; but to drink as a vampire;"

"The Man had never mad to use the lower arms, save to hold unto prey, the while that it did use the upper arms to strangle, as I do think."

Friday, November 13, 2015

This coming Sunday
November 15th is William Hope Hodgson's birthday. To celebrate,
everyday next week I'll be posting a new monster from Hodgson's alt-reality apocalyptic novel The Night Land.

Hodgson's story is set in the far future of a strange land. The remainder of humanity lives in a giant pyramid called the Great Redoubt. At one point they had contact with a smaller pyramid (The Lesser Redoubt) but communication has stopped. Now one man must make the journey through a rugged monster infested landscape to see if anyone's left in the other refuge.

It's full of amazing imagery, gloriously strange creatures and interesting concepts. However, it's made almost unreadable by an odd stilted (and extremely repetitious) vernacular (apparently Hodgson was trying to create a future slang based on archaic English?!) and some pretty insidious misogyny.

HOWEVER! The monsters are great and I did my best to bring them to life...

"Book of One Thousand Forms""The Votive of Nyarlathotep""Parchment of the Messenger"

-
Illustro Obscurum Book Of One Thousand Forms I is a compilation of 24
illustrations of avatars of Nyarlathotep by Michael Bukowski based on
the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. This book also contains collaborations
with contemporary authors Laird Barron, Victoria Dalpe, Gemma Files,
Philip Gelatt, Orrin Grey, John Langan, Livia Llewellyn, Silvia
Moreno-Garcia, W.H. Pugmire and Molly Tanzer. Each author wrote an
original description of Nyarlathotep for Michael Bukowski to illustrate.

Book
Of One Thousand Forms is the opulent Illustro Obscurum volume yet with
golden brown ink on gold frosted Canford paper with gold foil binding
tape and gold lace ribbon book mark.

Also includes two exclusive avatars created by Mike Bukowski and Jason McKittrick!

-The
Votive of Nyarlathotep- "A small devotional carving discovered in the
tomb of Nephren-Ka in 1844. The figure is believe to depict the entity
known as Nyarlathotep and he appears to be holding the enigmatic Shining
Trapezohedron."

-Parchment
of the Messenger- "An ancient parchment of indeterminate origin
currently residing in the collection of Miskatonic University. The
parchment contains an engraving of Nyarlathotep with an invocation or
prayer to the aforementioned entity. Donated by Albert N. Wilmarth."

"Book of One Thousand Forms""The Votive of Nyarlathotep""Parchment of the Messenger"

-
Illustro Obscurum Book Of One Thousand Forms I is a compilation of 24
illustrations of avatars of Nyarlathotep by Michael Bukowski based on
the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. This book also contains collaborations
with contemporary authors Laird Barron, Victoria Dalpe, Gemma Files,
Philip Gelatt, Orrin Grey, John Langan, Livia Llewellyn, Silvia
Moreno-Garcia, W.H. Pugmire and Molly Tanzer. Each author wrote an
original description of Nyarlathotep for Michael Bukowski to illustrate.

Book
Of One Thousand Forms is the opulent Illustro Obscurum volume yet with
golden brown ink on gold frosted Canford paper with gold foil binding
tape and gold lace ribbon book mark.

Also includes two exclusive avatars created by Mike Bukowski and Jason McKittrick!

-The
Votive of Nyarlathotep- "A small devotional carving discovered in the
tomb of Nephren-Ka in 1844. The figure is believe to depict the entity
known as Nyarlathotep and he appears to be holding the enigmatic Shining
Trapezohedron."

-Parchment
of the Messenger- "An ancient parchment of indeterminate origin
currently residing in the collection of Miskatonic University. The
parchment contains an engraving of Nyarlathotep with an invocation or
prayer to the aforementioned entity. Donated by Albert N. Wilmarth."

Monday, November 9, 2015

Two super exciting things in the work for this coming Friday, November 13th!

As mentioned before, the extremely limited Cryptocurium / Seventh Church Ministries collaboration Pack Of One Thousand Forms will go on sale. It will include the Illustro Obscurum: Book Of One Thousand Forms as well as two Nyarlathotep-themed artifacts created by Jason McKittrick!

It's also our very first
showcase! James Quigley will be the featured artist, showing his gorgeously gross demon prints inspired by the Goetia. Kyla Quigley
will also be showing her Tarot-inspired sculptures (immediately after
they've been shown at the NY Tarot Society!). On top of that Seventh
Church Congregation members Alan Brown, Michelle Dugan, Michelle Krysztofiak, Jeanne D'Angelo, Sam Heimer and myself will be showing work that has appeared in or with our zines.